ON1 Photo Raw 2023’s is reaching a point where we don’t need other apps to process our photos. It actually solved some of our most important editing and development difficulties.
There are many different mistakes that many photographers have in common when it comes to software. The first is the amount of programming we need to get the desired result. On my computer, in addition to Lightroom, Photoshop, and the other Nik and Topaz apps, I have a lot of other tools that I still use sometimes. That was before I mentioned Photoshop plugins. That leads to a complicated, time-consuming workflow that requires multiple programs to organize your photos and achieve the desired results. Second, there is the cost of purchasing and updating all of these programs.
The latest iteration of ON1 bring all their functions into one program. Moreover, it is a fast program that takes only a moment to swap between modules. I wrote a full review of the final version of ON1 Photo Raw in a previous post, so I won’t repeat myself here by reviewing the entire function. I’ll just mention briefly that it’s much cheaper than Adobe’s offerings, works as well or better in many areas of image processing, and is available for full purchase (perpetual license) and subscription. . Also, I know this is subjective, but I like its raw results much better than other raw development tools I try.
ON1’s photo portfolio is a great tool. It’s fast and reliable, with all the cataloging functionality found in other apps. Similar to the combination of Lightroom and Bridge, you can create albums in the Browse module, similar to Lightroom’s Collections. In fact, you can import your Lightroom collections and development settings into ON1, as well as raw adjustments. You can also use it as a file browser.
The Browse module has a useful new feature. It now has what ON1 calls keyword AI. It looks at images and automatically suggests keywords, saving you time typing or thinking about which keywords you should use.
On the images I tried, it identified subjects quickly and accurately, although it couldn’t distinguish between sunrise and sunset; some people struggle with that despite knowing that I live on the east coast. It also suggested a few incorrect keywords, but I didn’t choose which ones to use. Over time, as ON1 feeds more images to the AI engine, this will become more effective.
ON1 is years ahead of Adobe with accurate edge detection for masking, and their competition is just catching up; ON1’s “Perfect Brush” is far superior to Lightroom’s “Edge Detect”. But now ON1 Photo Raw 2023 has taken the lead again and its coverage is far superior to anything else available on the market. It also uses AI technology to speed up the editing process.
The software claims to eliminate “told methods of masking, layering, brushing or adjusting”. One click on the sky and the Super Select AI tool and that area is selected; one click of a person and they are selected instead. It seems to be working fine. Only once or twice, with some unusual photos of the kind the AI hasn’t learned yet, the selection isn’t perfect. However, that is rare and is easily remedied by fine-tuning the mask with an additional click.
The AI selection function is good but not 100% perfect in its application. For example, when I selected sea areas of a long exposure photo, it missed patches, but that improves over time as the system learns. That said, it still performs much better than other auto selectors I’ve used. If it doesn’t define selections correctly the first time around, any shortcoming is more quickly rectified than doing mask selection from scratch using the awesome Perfect Brush.
I predict the AI will improve as time goes on and it learns from more images that everyone at ON1 installs; ON1 does not use your data, although I am happy to share my data. However, Photoshop, Lightroom, and Affinity do not touch this function.
Any selected part of the photo can be easily adjusted by applying preset adjustment layers to it with a right click. Hover over the new “Adaptive Preset” to preview all the adjustments that can be applied, which can be further modified once selected. That really speeds up the workflow.
Image enhancement also has a host of AI functions, including upscaling, noise reduction, and new sharpening and restoration of out-of-focus areas in the Tack Sharp AI engine. I tested this and it worked fine with the photos I tried, although the defaults were too strong for me, so I needed to reduce those values manually.
What I like about the ON1 Raw 2023 photo and what could be improved
ON1 Photo Raw 2023 is suitable for all levels of photographers. Beginners can use one-click adjustments, while experts can grow the image from there with as much control as a layer adjuster in Photoshop. It’s a boon for those looking to speed up their workflow. ON1 Photo Raw gives me much better results than Lightroom. In addition, it quickly jumps back and forth between Develop and other modules, much faster than switching from Lightroom to Photoshop and back. Applying layer adjustments is also more intuitive than Photoshop.
It’s stable software. Even on my old machine it works perfectly without any lag.
New functionality speeds up the workflow even further, eliminating the need for separate plugins like Topaz Denoise and Sharpen AI.
There were a few minor hiccups with the first release, as are common with new, complex software. But an update just solved those. Also, the default settings for Denoise and Tack Sharp AI are a bit too strong for my liking. But again, so does Adobe Camera Raw / Lightroom, for less noise reduction and sharpening.
The before and after images are out of focus and there is a lot of motion blur. The Tack Sharp AI feature makes unusable photos usable.
For someone starting out in photography or looking to move away from the Adobe suite, ON1 Photo Raw is an obvious choice. For those who, like me, are overwhelmed by a variety of complex and diverse applications and workflows, it’s perfect.
I start by saying that maybe ON1 Photo Raw 2023 might be the only software you need; that is. Its workflow is different from other apps and requires a bit of learning from scratch. But it’s fast and includes all the functionality I’d expect. It is by far the most complete image processing software I have used. As always, I used some extreme examples to test this software and it coped well in recovering corrupted images. In the real world, images won’t be blurry or severely grainy, so the results will be much better. I can fully recommend ON Photo Raw 2023 as the most comprehensive and effective tool available.
Of course, it won’t be the only software on my computer as I’ll put others past their speed for you, but it’s impressive, and if I were to rely on a program, this would be That is it.
The video at the top from ON1 shows some of the new features in action.
